Brothers Jake and Luke Davies were raised in Melbourne, Australia – but relocated to Long Beach, CA to further their music career in the USA, where they’ve released records and played live since, as Of Limbo.
Of Limbo has become known for their raucous live shows and hard driving, heavy rock and roll, but their new LP, Unplugged, showcases a more thoughtful and deeper dive into their lyrical and musical abilities. The album showcases a reflective, acoustic sound with a mix of original songs and covers of three of their personal favourites. The LP was self-produced and mixed at their home studio, and mastered by Brian Frederick of Long Beach Mastering.
The LP’s focus track is a cover of the iconic Radiohead track ‘Street Spirit’. The song delves into the seeming inevitability of troubles and strife in life – and ultimately finding solace in love. The ethereal vocals, supported by the steady acoustic guitar line resemble the constant beating of a heart. Of Limbo’sJake Daviessaid “My all-time most loved Radiohead song. I am so proud of Luke’s guitar work on this cover. He wrote some guitar harmonies that really take it somewhere special. Our friend Lucas Holter from Whiskey & The Wolves is featured with us on this one and knocked it absolutely out of the park with his vocals. I got chills hearing him lay down his takes.”
The video for ‘Street Spirit was directed by Brandon Vancour. It was filmed on a beach in the Belmont shore neighbourhood in Long Beach. Jake explained: “Radiohead’s video for this song is one of my favourite videos of all time. We knew we weren’t gonna be driving an airstream onto the beach and slow-mo me falling off it etc. But we wanted to pay homage to the source material. Black and white, slow-motion moments – very dreamy. Lucas Holter gave a great performance in the video as well – Super proud ofthis one.”
Of Limbo also recored a fun homage to Van Halen with their acoustic version of the classic ‘Finish What Ya Started‘. It was their second release from the Unplugged album.
Recorded at the band’s home studio in Long Beach, their self-produced rendition is a tongue-in-cheek remake that adheres to the original, while veering towards making it a bluesy, sexy and hell raising version that’s the trademark sound that Of Limbo are becoming known for.
Jake Davies from the band said: “Jason Klein (formerly of Butcher Babies), our Unplugged bassist, brought us this one and we knew we had to do it. Van Hagar at their best! It’s a true hound-dog masterpiece. We would never try to improve on their perfection. But we did take a couple liberties with the song here and there!”
The ‘Finish What Ya Started’ video was directed by Brandon Vancour and similarly filmed at the band’s studio. As Davis explained “We just wanted to have fun and recreate the classic Van Halen video. We played around a little bit to make it a version our fans have come to expect. Other than that, we just followed their lead and hit up a couple babes (Internet sensations Heather Leather and Lindsey Ferrari) to dress up like rocker cowgirls while we danced around and sang along. There might have been some tequila involved.”
The singles are available here.
The Van Halen cover song followed on swiftly from their previous release, the more serious ‘Joke’s On You’, as that is an acoustic ode to gaslighting in relationships.
The song was self-produced and again recorded at the band’s home studio in Long Beach. The opening guitar line starts out with a slinky and contemplative tone and builds into righteous, smouldering anger driven by hand claps and intense, plaintive vocals.
The band’s Jake Davies said “Joke’s On You’ is about recognising gaslighting techniques in a relationship. You see the person feigning tears and storming off expecting you to chase after them. Most of us are all too familiar with these kinds of manipulative tactics by now. But when you first start to really recognise it, it’s a relief and kind of empowering. Because you realize it’s not you… It’s all them.”
The band shot the video for ‘Joke’s On You’ entirely on an IPhone 14 at a park next to their mom’s house in Australia, armed with nothing but a $20 LED from Amazon and a six pack of tall boys. Continuing, Davies explained: “We filmed this in the moment, just going with the flow. The red and blue color overlays are meant to be a representation of being two faced.”
For more about Of Limbo at RAMzine click here.
